Leopold Aschenbrenner begins his monograph Situational Consciousness: The Decade Forward with one hanging line: “You can see the future first in San Francisco.”
What follows are 165 pages about what the way forward for AI will appear to be, drawn with readability and theoretical forcefulness. The essay went viral and a brand new Silicon Valley wunderkind was born.
The fresh-faced 23-year-old—who had been fired from OpenAI and who started his profession at FTX’s doomed philanthropy arm—was catapulted to new heights: He now runs a hedge fund managing greater than $1.5 billion.
It’s a exceptional story in its personal proper. And as my colleague Sharon Goldman reported in a latest profile of the German-born Aschenbrenner, the story is all of the extra notable for the methods during which it’s clearly an indication of the instances, and the divisive reactions the younger AI researcher attracted.
As Goldman writes:
To some, Aschenbrenner is a uncommon genius who noticed the second—the approaching of humanlike synthetic common intelligence, China’s accelerating AI race, and the huge fortunes awaiting those that transfer first—extra clearly than anybody else. To others, together with a number of former OpenAI colleagues, he’s a fortunate novice with no finance monitor report, repackaging hype right into a hedge fund pitch.
However why a hedge fund, and never a VC agency (that is Silicon Valley, not Greenwich, Connecticut, in spite of everything)? That was my first query, and I’m not the one one. Goldman garnered some perception from an LP who spoke on the situation of anonymity:
“One other investor in Situational Consciousness LP, who manages a number one hedge fund, instructed Fortune that he was struck by Aschenbrenner’s reply when requested why he was beginning a hedge fund centered on AI reasonably than a VC fund, which appeared like the obvious alternative.
“He said that AGI was going to be so impactful to the global economy that the only way to fully capitalize on it was to express investment ideas in the most liquid markets in the world,” he mentioned. “I’m a bit surprised by how briskly they’ve come up the educational curve … They’re far more refined on AI investing than anybody else I communicate to within the public markets.“
It’s a narrative value studying, not just for its uncommonly attention-grabbing central determine—even for AI—however for the methods during which it touches on the mental subcultures surrounding tech, from efficient altruism to rationalists. Learn the entire story right here.
See you tomorrow,
Enterprise Offers
– Starship Applied sciences, a San Francisco-based autonomous supply firm, raised $50 million in Sequence C funding. Plural led the spherical and was joined by Karma.vc, Latitude, and others.
– Campfire, a San Francisco-based AI-native ERP, raised $65 million in Sequence B funding. Accel and Ribit co-led the spherical and had been joined by Basis Capital and Y Combinator.
– Wild Bioscience, an Oxford, U.Ok.-based crop resilience firm, raised $60 million in Sequence A funding. The Ellison Institute of Expertise led the spherical and was joined by current traders Oxford Science Enterprises, Braavos Capital, and the College of Oxford.
– Viven, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based developer of digital AI twins for workers, raised $35 million in seed funding from Khosla Ventures, Basis Capital, FPV Ventures, Operator Collective, and others.
– Prisma Photonics, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based large-scale infrastructure monitoring firm, raised $30 million in Sequence D funding. Protego Ventures led the spherical and was joined by Adara Ventures and others.
– MatrixSpace, a Burlington, Mass.-based developer of moveable AI-enhanced radar counter drone sensing expertise, raised $20 million in Sequence B funding. The Raptor Group and OTB Ventures led the spherical and had been joined by L3Harris and others.
– Aboon, a New York Metropolis-based AI-powered 401k platform for monetary advisors, raised $17.5 million in seed funding. Bain Capital Ventures led the spherical and was joined by Altai Ventures, Runyon, and others.
– LuxQuanta, a Barcelona, Spain-based quantum safety firm, raised €8 million ($9.3 million) in Sequence A funding. Large Sur Ventures led the spherical and was joined by others.
– Trove AI, a San Francisco, Calif.-based developer of an AI teammate for personal fairness, raised $7.1 million in seed funding. Menlo Ventures led the spherical and was joined by Khosla Ventures.
– Provision, a Toronto, Ontario-based developer of an AI copilot for building estimators, raised $7 million in seed funding. Cercano Administration led the spherical and was joined by Y Combinator, One Approach Ventures, and others.
– Issues.AI, a Wilmington, Del. and Bangalore, India-based developer of an AI safety engineer for information, raised $6.3 million in funding throughout seed and pre-seed rounds. Kaalari Capital and Endiya Companions led the seed spherical and had been joined by Higher Capital, Carya Enterprise Companions, and others. Higher Capital and Carya Enterprise Companions led the pre-seed spherical.
– Woz, a San Francisco-based AI-powered app-building platform, raised $6 million in seed funding. Cervin Ventures led the spherical and was joined by Burst Capital, Y Combinator, Untapped Ventures, and others.
– cto.new, a London, U.Ok.-based AI code agent, raised $5.7 million in pre-seed and seed funding from Kindred Ventures, PROfounders Capital, Surprise Ventures, and Entrepreneurs First.
– Aragorn AI, a Plano, Texas-based worker information platform, raised $4.3 million in seed funding. LiveOak Ventures led the spherical and was joined by Dallas Enterprise Capital.
– SLNG, a London, U.Ok.-based world speech AI infrastructure platform, raised $3.9 million in pre-seed funding. Earlybird VC led the spherical.
– Ploy, a London, U.Ok.-based cybersecurity startup, raised £2.5 million ($3.4 million) in funding. Osney Capital led the spherical and was joined by others.
Personal Fairness
– Lone Star Funds agreed to take Hillenbrand, a Batesville, Ind.-based processing tools and methods supplier, personal for about $3.8 billion.
– Accel-KKR acquired a majority stake in Phocas Software program, a Sydney, Australia-based enterprise intelligence and monetary planning & evaluation firm. Monetary phrases weren’t disclosed.
– ARCHIMED acquired DermaPharm, a Fårup, Denmark-based developer of suncare, skincare, and haircare merchandise. Monetary phrases weren’t disclosed.
– Bonterra, backed by Apax Companions, acquired OneCause, a Carmel, Ind.-based developer of fundraising software program. Monetary phrases weren’t disclosed.
– Studying Pool, a portfolio firm of Marlin Fairness Companions, acquired WorkRamp, a San Francisco-based studying administration system for mid-market firms. Monetary phrases weren’t disclosed.
– Northrim Horizon acquired a majority stake in Solutions360 USA, a Mesa, Ariz.-based enterprise administration software program supplier. Monetary phrases weren’t disclosed.
Exits
– S&P International agreed to accumulate With Intelligence, a London, U.Ok.-based funding intelligence platform, from Motive Companions, for $1.8 billion in money.
Funds + Funds of Funds
– AAF Administration, a Washington, D.C. and Abu Dhabi-based enterprise capital agency, raised $55 million for a brand new fund centered on pre-seed, seed, and Sequence A expertise firms.
